Bhopal: All the eight terrorists of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) who escaped from Bhopal Central Jail were killed in a gunfight on the outskirts of the city, police said on Monday.

“All eight SIMI terrorists were killed in an encounter near Manikhedi Pathar village,” a senior police officer said. “We located the eight inmates,they fired on us, and all of them were killed in cross firing,” Yogesh Chaudhary,IG Bhopal said.

They were gunned down in Eintkhedi village-about 30 km north of Bhopal.

Meanwhile, Odisha DGP KB Singh praised the Madhya Pradesh police for the succeccful encounter. “It was a very good work done by the Madhya Pradesh Police. Out of all the eight SIMI activists, who had escaped from the Bhopal jail last night at about 2 am, we had arrested four of them from Rourkela”, Singh said.

All the extremists of banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) fled after killing a jail guard in the midnight on Sunday.

Four terrorists of the banned outfit had been arrested from Rourkela in sedition case in February this year. The four identified as Zakir, Mehboob, Amzaad and Mohammad had been sent to jail after that. The four SIMI operatives along with a woman, Najma (Mehboob’s mother),had been arrested from a house in Rourkela on February 17.

The five had been caught following a brief exchange of fire during an operation launched by the tactical unit of Odisha Special Operation Group (SOG) and Telangana Police.

Soon after their escape, Odisha police had sounded red alert in Rourkela as they had the previous links with the steel city.